City of Cambridge will clean up discarded needles on private property

By cceolin

The City of Cambridge is changing the way it deals with discarded needle complaints.

Mayor Doug Craig tells 570 NEWS you’ll no longer be responsible for cleaning up the dirty, used needles found on your property.

“You can’t ask a grandmother, and you can’t ask a young mother with children to go out and pick up needles,” he says. “So we have decided as a municipality, if people call us, and have discarded needles on their property — private property — we will send out the appropriate people who are trained to come and retrieve them.”

Up until now, city staff would only collect discarded syringes from public places like parks, sidewalks and boulevards, while home and property owners were responsible for picking up and disposing of those found on their property.

According to the Cambridge Environmental Advisory Committee, well over 200 needles were found by volunteers at a community litter cleanup event this past April, compared to 1-2 needles found at the same event in years past.

Craig says it’s all part of the city’s response to the opioid crisis.

“This is just the next step that’s been brought to our attention,” he says. “I think that the complaint in terms of private property and people dealing with this was certainly legitimate and something that we had to immediately act upon. And we’ve done that.”

If you find a dirty needle on residential or commercial property, Craig says you can call Cambridge City Hall at (519) 623-1340.

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